Water is a prime natural resource, a basic human need and a precious national asset. Water is fundamental to life, livelihood, food security and sustainable development.
... See More + Planning, development and management of water resources are extremely important for the development of a fragile landscape like Sundarbans. Experts believe that the nexus between natural resources and water is key to sustainable and equitable economic development and growth in any State or Region. With the increasing population, the freshwater sources are getting exploited all over the world. Surface water is used more often than groundwater due to its easy accessibility. About 2.1 billion people in the world lacked safely managed drinking water services at home in the year 2015. At the same time ‘freshwater is under stress due to its limited supply and increasing demand all over the world’ (State of Environment Report, West Bengal, 2016). Fresh water is not available in plenty everywhere all the time. The demand of water will increase in accordance with the growth of population. The demand of water for a human being is not only restricted to his or her domestic demand. The Sundarbans region is one of the richest ecosystems in the world. The region contains arguably the world’s largest remaining area of mangroves, and is known for its exceptional biodiversity, including numerous threatened species such as the emblematic Royal Bengal tiger and several species of river dolphin (The World Bank, 2014). Although Sundarbans is surrounded by rivers and sea on all sides except north and at the same time crisscrossed by innumerable creeks, there remains water crisis all over Sundarbans, since the water is saline in nature. Even the groundwater in shallow aquifers are quite saline and thereby beyond reach of the common men. In this backdrop, an attempt has been made to assess the freshwater availability in Indian part of Sundarbans.
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The focus of the study is to make a harmonious hydrometeorology system for Sundarban landscape covering both the parts namely India and Bangladesh so that continuous real time measurements of different hydrodynamic parameters like tidal range fluctuations, waves, currents, sediment loads, saline water ingress along the rivers and creeks in different seasons and in varied tidal regimes, freshwater input (especially for Bangladesh Part) etc. can be carried out in future for preparation of a robust database for this otherwise fragile landscape due to climate change and Sea Level Rise.
... See More + Sundarbans, the coastal part of Ganga-Brahmaputra Delta (GBD), is located on the western side of the delta and was covered previously in totality by mangrove forest, spreading over India and Bangladesh. However, since 1770, it was partly reclaimed for human habitation and agriculture in both the countries. Sundarbans have been best described by O’Malley in the District Gazetteer of 24-Parganas District. ‘The Sundarbans are a network of tidal channels, rivers, creeks and Islands. Some of these islands are mere swampy morasses, covered with low forest and scrub wood jungle, but those to the north, which are embanked grow rich crops of rice. As one approaches the coast, the land gradually declines to an elevation which throughout many hundred square miles is scarcely raised above high-water mark. This seaboard area is a typical specimen of new deltaic formation. It exhibits the process of Land-making in an unfinished state and presents the last stage in the life of a great river, the stage in which it emerges through a region of half land, half water, almost imperceptibly, into the sea.’
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The focus of the study is to make a harmonious hydrometeorology system for Sundarban landscape covering both the parts namely India and Bangladesh so that continuous real time measurements of different hydrodynamic parameters like tidal range fluctuations, waves, currents, sediment loads, saline water ingress along the rivers and creeks in different seasons and in varied tidal regimes, freshwater input (especially for Bangladesh Part) etc. can be carried out in future for preparation of a robust database for this otherwise fragile landscape due to climate change and Sea Level Rise.
... See More + Sundarbans, the coastal part of Ganga-Brahmaputra Delta (GBD), is located on the western side of the delta and was covered previously in totality by mangrove forest, spreading over India and Bangladesh. However, since 1770, it was partly reclaimed for human habitation and agriculture in both the countries. Sundarbans have been best described by O’Malley in the District Gazetteer of 24-Parganas District. ‘The Sundarbans are a network of tidal channels, rivers, creeks and Islands. Some of these islands are mere swampy morasses, covered with low forest and scrub wood jungle, but those to the north, which are embanked grow rich crops of rice. As one approaches the coast, the land gradually declines to an elevation which throughout many hundred square miles is scarcely raised above high-water mark. This seaboard area is a typical specimen of new deltaic formation. It exhibits the process of Land-making in an unfinished state and presents the last stage in the life of a great river, the stage in which it emerges through a region of half land, half water, almost imperceptibly, into the sea.’
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The Sundarban mangrove wetlands occupy the western part of the lower Ganga–Brahmaputra delta (GBD), Bangladesh and India. Formation of the Bengal basin, the cradle of the GBD, started in the Jurassic with initiation of rifting of the Pangaea and completed by the Miocene with docking of eastern India with the Burma platelet.
... See More + Sedimentation of the basin started almost contemporaneous to rifting and occurred in the three geotectonic provinces of continental shelf, deeper basin areas, and Chittagong-Tripura Fold Belt. The GBD originated with the opening of the Rajmahal, Garo gap in the Plio-Pleistocene. It acquired its present form during the late Holocene 8 after the sea level neared its present position. The Holocene history of the delta was characterized by fluctuations in monsoon-related sediment discharge, land, and seaward 10 migrations of depocenters and at least five switching during the Brahmaputra. Future planning for the region must accept the transformations that are brought into the system by the humans and strike a balance between the requirements of the nature and the needs of the people.
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The focus of the study is to make a harmonious hydrometeorology system for Sundarban landscape covering both the parts namely India and Bangladesh so that continuous real time measurements of different hydrodynamic parameters like tidal range fluctuations, waves, currents, sediment loads, saline water ingress along the rivers and creeks in different seasons and in varied tidal regimes, freshwater input (especially for Bangladesh Part) etc. can be carried out in future for preparation of a robust database for this otherwise fragile landscape due to climate change and Sea Level Rise.
... See More + Sundarbans, the coastal part of Ganga-Brahmaputra Delta (GBD), is located on the western side of the delta and was covered previously in totality by mangrove forest, spreading over India and Bangladesh. However, since 1770, it was partly reclaimed for human habitation and agriculture in both the countries. Sundarbans have been best described by O’Malley in the District Gazetteer of 24-Parganas District. ‘The Sundarbans are a network of tidal channels, rivers, creeks and Islands. Some of these islands are mere swampy morasses, covered with low forest and scrub wood jungle, but those to the north, which are embanked grow rich crops of rice. As one approaches the coast, the land gradually declines to an elevation which throughout many hundred square miles is scarcely raised above high-water mark. This seaboard area is a typical specimen of new deltaic formation. It exhibits the process of Land-making in an unfinished state and presents the last stage in the life of a great river, the stage in which it emerges through a region of half land, half water, almost imperceptibly, into the sea.’
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